Fighters from an al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria have killed a leader of the Western- and Arab-backed Free Syrian Army after stopping him at a checkpoint, an FSA spokesman said, underlining growing rifts between Syrian opposition groups. Kamal … Continue Reading

But the real news was not the successful launch and now landing of a sleek, jet-powered killer drone on a carrier, but that in the span of a decade, the U.S. military has seen drones transform from primitive, propeller-driven flying lawnmowers … Continue Reading

Supporters and opponents of the ousted Egyptian Islamist President Mohammed Morsi are preparing to stage large rallies in Cairo on the first Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan. Mr Morsi’s supporters are gathering in their thousands in the … Continue Reading

Despite the headline increase in global oil consumption, Opec should be concerned with these numbers. The call for its crude this year, at 29.9 million b/d, is already 400,000 b/d beneath demand for the group’s oil last year. Next year, says the … Continue Reading

For the new civilian leadership in Egypt, the aid will provide some breathing space as they get their economic and political act together, but it will also come with some not so subtle strings attached. The timing of the new flows made it … Continue Reading

The Customs Department said yesterday that it made SR 22.25 billion in revenues last year, 13.5 percent more than the revenue of 2011. Tariff exemption given to imported products valued at SR 6.4 billion in 2012. In its annual report, the … Continue Reading

Regardless of the significance of the events at the Jenadriyah Festival, what is certain is that the incidents reflect a larger dilemma: that of the Saudi state’s identity, torn between the different visions espoused by the princes and the … Continue Reading

Yet another Saudi is arrested in the US under the laws that forbid trafficking in humans. This time, it’s the wife of a Saudi prince in Irvine, California, a city in Orange County, near Lost Angeles. Meshael Alayban, wife of Prince … Continue Reading

U.S. defence firm General Dynamics is in talks to deliver battle tanks to Saudi Arabia, beating out German rival Krauss-Maffei Wegmann for the lucrative deal, a German newspaper reported. Handelsblatt daily cited industry sources as saying on … Continue Reading

But let’s back up to what prompted Egypt’s wholesale rebuke of the network that rose to global prominence covering the Arab revolts of 2011. As Arabs rose against their governments in those heady, hopeful days, Al Jazeera provided non-stop … Continue Reading

Jordanians are expressing increasing pessimism. The percentage rating their lives highly enough to be considered “thriving” fell to an all-time low of 11% in December 2012. More now are so negative about their prospects that they are either … Continue Reading

Exactly who will be able to watch “The Attack” in the Middle East remains to be seen. Permission to show the film in Lebanon was revoked on the grounds that Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri violated a 1955 Lebanese Israel boycott law when he cast … Continue Reading

Evening attacks against Shiites in Iraq killed at least 24 people and wounded 49, Iraqi officials said Friday, in the latest attempt by insurgents to exacerbate the country’s renewed sectarian tensions. The attacks raised the death toll from … Continue Reading

Qatar, a key supporter of Islamists who rose to power in Arab Spring countries, is losing ground in regional politics to Saudi Arabia which appears to have seized the reins on key issues, notably Egypt and Syria.The decline in Qatar’s regional … Continue Reading

In this country’s most remote corner — far from the central government, the Taliban, running water, roads, paper currency, foreign troops and medical care — word of the other Afghanistan has arrived. In the past few years, satellites have … Continue Reading

Saudi Binladin Group, one of the largest construction firms in the kingdom, has completed a SR1bn ($266.7m) Islamic bond sale, two bankers familiar with the matter said.The transaction, structured as a sukuk al-murabaha, has a one-year lifespan … Continue Reading